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In other government ICT news this week, 14 January 2013

by Intermedium •
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A deal struck between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and software provider First Derivatives has been revealed via AusTender as costing the agency $13.6 million. Funding is expected to have been drawn from the $43.7 million ASIC received in the 2012-13 Federal Budget for the replacement of its current market surveillance system.

The Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman has renewed its ICT shared services relationship with the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), under an $8 million deal covering the period November 2012 to June 2013.

DEEWR has also established an ICT Technical and Advisory Panel for ICT Consultancies, which is due to expire in October 2015. In keeping with the Federal Government’s Portfolio Panels for IT Services policy, the panel will be accessible by any agency wishing to avail itself of the option.

Victorian Privacy Commissioner Anthony Bendall has called for a more comprehensive approach to privacy issues to be included in the State’s upcoming ICT strategy, based on the published draft ICT Strategy. He has suggested that privacy considerations should be made clear at the start of a project, rather than later on.

The latest meeting of the NSW ICT Board on 14 December 2012 resulted in:

  1. The Board noting that implementation of the ICT Strategy is proceeding well.
  2. The approval of a draft NSW Government Social Media Policy and Guidelines.
  3. Approval for the Board secretary to draft an Open Government options paper.

Users faced difficulties accessing the NSW Rural Fire Services website during the recent spate of high temperatures and bushfires, IT Newshas reported. Service provider Telstra said delays were caused by a large spike in traffic, and resolved the issue by adjusting load parameters across a number of servers. The Victorian Country Fire Authority (CFA) also faced problems during a recent heatwave and moved its website and phone app onto separate servers.

Job vacancies are at their lowest level in 30 months, according to a national survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with public sector vacancies subject to the most significant drops. There were 12,300 government or semi-government jobs available across Australia in November 2012, compared to 17,500 in the previous year, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Statistics show that new state governments in NSW, Victoria and Queensland have cut jobs significantly.

New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs will be contacting agencies in regard to their migration from Windows XP and Office 2003 to supported systems, indicating that it may well be looking to aggregate demand for an upcoming coordinated procurement.

NZ’s newly-formed ICT Taskforce is developing an ICT Strategy to take it out to 2017, and expects to release a formal report around March 2013. The ICT Taskforce and ICT Functional Leadership Reference Group have been recently established by NZ’s Government Chief Information Officer to help shape strategic ICT interests and leadership across government organisations.

Western Australia’s Barnett Government remains the strong favourite to win the upcoming election on 9 March 2013, according to a Newspoll, with an extended 58-42 two-party-preferred lead over Labor. Labor’s primary support is steady at 30 percent, The Australian reports.

Two WA Government-supported Lotterywest grants totalling $2.7 million will be used to redevelop the customer service centre at the Centre for Cerebral Palsy with specialised mobility devices and state-of-the-art communications.

The Department of Finance and Deregulation has awarded a $2 million five-year contract to Hewlett-Packard for support and ongoing development of Australia.gov.au, the Federal Government’s central citizen-facing online portal. The contract expires in June 2013.

The Department of Finance and Deregulation has requested Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the provision of a superannuation administration system, with submissions closing at 2pm on 21 January 2013.

Related Articles:

Contracts reveal ASIC’s $20 million IT partnership with Accenture

Audit Report Shows DEEWR e-Business Still Fall Short in Some Areas

NSW makes Procure IT mandatory

For more information, please contact the Editor (02) 9955 9896.

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